3: Influences

I recently had the pleasure of viewing Fine Art photographer Matt Lipps’ work at Pier 24 in San Francisco. It was our first official field trip as a class this semester and the gallery purports to house the largest collection of photography in the nation. It wasn’t all on display, thank God! What was there was enough to have me swimming in image overload for days. The current show deals with reappropriation. More than a dozen artists use existing images, create new perspectives and convey social concepts on visual media’s importance in our lives. The exhibit is a photographic explosion, sometimes to overwhelming proportions. I chose to focus on Matt Lipps’ Horizon/s because it was a “shelter in the storm” of visual stimuli.

Matt Lipps’ work is very enticing, with rich, saturated colors and iconic images of beauty, both figurative and abstract. He outsources his images from defunct Horizon magazine and then makes them stand upright on a flat surface. From there, they are bathed in deep hues of color, reminiscent of film gels and illuminated to create cast shadows on the background. Finally, he rephotographs the compositions and presents them in large formats, allowing the viewer to be absorbed by the photos themselves. The effect was calming and inviting and made me want to stay in the room for along time. I highly recommend you experience his work first hand. – PH